Steel Seal - Biography
This band's profile is 'invisible', meaning that it's much less prominent on the site - either because it's incomplete, or maybe doesn't entirely fit MS format.
Biography
Steel Seal were born in Rome, Italy, in 2003 as a result of the efforts of the guitar player and songwriter Marco Valerio Zangani, former axeman of the local hard rock group Sacer Tiber. He got in touch with some more veterans of the Roman hard and heavy scene (the vocalist Bruno Baudo, the bass player Roberto Fasciani and the keyboardist Adriano Rossi, from the Yngwie Malmsteen's cover band Black Stars) and got them togheter around a new project aimed at arranging original songs to submit to the public and to the record companies.
With that line-up Steel Seal recorded their Demo 2003, a 5-tracks promo CD with computer synthesized drumming that gained the attention of several record companies during 2004 and led the band to a contract with the Italian label Underground Symphony for the recording of their debut album By The Power Of Thunder.
Shortly after some problems with the line-up led to the giving up of Baudo and Fasciani, while Rossi contributed to the recordings of the album as an additional musician. The bass player and the keyboardist were replaced by Andrea Orciuolo, from the local club circuit, and Fabio Bernardi, from the Roman group River Of Change - from River Of Change came also the new drummer Luca Iovieno.
About the vocal parts, both the band and Underground Symphony were sure that the quality of the songs could justify the cooperation of a well known international vocalist, so they submitted Steel Seal's promo CD to some of the worldwide top metal singers and gained the willingness to take part in the recordings from renowned singers among which D.C. Cooper, who was the final choice for the debut album. During 2006 Steel Seal and D.C. Cooper completed the recordings of the ten songs included in the album and By The Power Of Thunder was released in Japan in December 2006 and in the rest of the world during 2007.
In 2008, while the tracks for the second album, entitled Redemption Denied, were taking shape, new problems with the line-up led to the defection of Orciuolo and Bernardi and to the consequent comeback of Fasciani and Rossi. As already happened with the latter for By The Power Of Thunder, also Bernardi contributed to the recordings of the new album as an additional musician, togheter with Lorenzo Milone, a talented guitarist with several experiences with Italian bands, and Marco Ronci, from the Roman band Entropia.
The vocal parts were this time committed to another worldwide well-known metal singer, Thomas Vikström, who recorded them in Argentina in January 2009; on one song Vikström has a duet with the Italian vocalist Val Shieldon, also credited for the backing vocals in many tracks.
The recordings of the new album finished in the second part of 2009 and Redemption Denied is about to be released worldwide by Underground Symphony. The eleven songs included in the album are 100% Steel Seal music, a fusion of traditional hard rock with contemporary neo-classical power metal, tought out to merge power and melody, harmony and aggressiveness. As for the first album, special efforts have been made in order to get high quality lyrics that could rely on meaningful and intense verses, often inspired by rhymes of classic British and American poets.
(Source: Official website, 8.2.2015)
With that line-up Steel Seal recorded their Demo 2003, a 5-tracks promo CD with computer synthesized drumming that gained the attention of several record companies during 2004 and led the band to a contract with the Italian label Underground Symphony for the recording of their debut album By The Power Of Thunder.
Shortly after some problems with the line-up led to the giving up of Baudo and Fasciani, while Rossi contributed to the recordings of the album as an additional musician. The bass player and the keyboardist were replaced by Andrea Orciuolo, from the local club circuit, and Fabio Bernardi, from the Roman group River Of Change - from River Of Change came also the new drummer Luca Iovieno.
About the vocal parts, both the band and Underground Symphony were sure that the quality of the songs could justify the cooperation of a well known international vocalist, so they submitted Steel Seal's promo CD to some of the worldwide top metal singers and gained the willingness to take part in the recordings from renowned singers among which D.C. Cooper, who was the final choice for the debut album. During 2006 Steel Seal and D.C. Cooper completed the recordings of the ten songs included in the album and By The Power Of Thunder was released in Japan in December 2006 and in the rest of the world during 2007.
In 2008, while the tracks for the second album, entitled Redemption Denied, were taking shape, new problems with the line-up led to the defection of Orciuolo and Bernardi and to the consequent comeback of Fasciani and Rossi. As already happened with the latter for By The Power Of Thunder, also Bernardi contributed to the recordings of the new album as an additional musician, togheter with Lorenzo Milone, a talented guitarist with several experiences with Italian bands, and Marco Ronci, from the Roman band Entropia.
The vocal parts were this time committed to another worldwide well-known metal singer, Thomas Vikström, who recorded them in Argentina in January 2009; on one song Vikström has a duet with the Italian vocalist Val Shieldon, also credited for the backing vocals in many tracks.
The recordings of the new album finished in the second part of 2009 and Redemption Denied is about to be released worldwide by Underground Symphony. The eleven songs included in the album are 100% Steel Seal music, a fusion of traditional hard rock with contemporary neo-classical power metal, tought out to merge power and melody, harmony and aggressiveness. As for the first album, special efforts have been made in order to get high quality lyrics that could rely on meaningful and intense verses, often inspired by rhymes of classic British and American poets.
(Source: Official website, 8.2.2015)